1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal with a link strip, and more particularly to a terminal which includes a link strip manufactured by simply upwardly and downwardly bending a copper sheet having a strip shape with a desired width.
2. Description of the Related Art
As well known, terminals are configured to receive several strands of conductive wires so that they enable an electrical connection or conduction of those conductive wires. Such terminals are widely used because they have a large conductive current capacity.
Such terminals are used in multiple in such a fashion that a plurality of terminals are laterally laminated together in accordance with a required number of connections. Typically, terminals each having two or four wire receiving holes are mainly used.
Referring to FIG. 1, an example of such terminals is illustrated, which is a four-hole type terminal having four wire receiving holes. As shown in FIG. 1, the terminal includes a body 10, and four loop-shaped wire connecting engagement members 12, 13, 14, and 15 fitted in the body 10. Each wire connecting engagement members 12, 13, 14, or 15 is bent into a b shape to define a hole 12a, 13a, 14a, or 15a. The terminal also includes a link strip 20 for electrically connecting the wire connecting engagement members 12, 13, 14, and 15 together.
However, the link strip 20 conventionally used is fabricated by punching a metal sheet into a desired strip shape, and pressing the strip to bend desired portions of he strip in forward, backward, left and right directions, and then bending again the bent portions of the strip. Due to such processes, there is a drawback in that a relatively large amount of blanks are generated after the pressing process. This results in an increased waste of the material, thereby causing an increase in the manufacturing costs. Furthermore, there is a degradation in productivity because the fabrication process used are complex.
Where a plurality of terminals are laterally laminated together, their link strips 20 cannot be connected together. This results in a problem in that it is necessary to individually machine the bodies of the terminals for the connection of the link strips 20.
Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the above mentioned problems, and an object of the invention is to provide a terminal which includes a link strip capable of reducing the waste of the material occurring in the fabrication thereof while reducing the number of processing steps involved in the fabrication thereof.
In accordance with the present invention, this object is accomplished by providing A terminal including at least two terminal bodies each having a plurality of wire receiving holes, and a plurality of hinge shafts rotatably supported by each of the bodies, a plurality of wire connecting engagement members respectively coupled to the hinge shafts so that they are rotated in accordance with the rotation of the hinge shafts, separation walls formed inside of each of the bodies and adapted to limit the rotation of associated ones of the wire connecting engagement members, a link strip adapted to come into contact with wires received in the wire receiving holes, respectively, thereby electrically connecting the wires together, a plurality of springs each arranged between an associated one of the wire connecting engagement members and the body associated with the wire connecting engagement member and adapted to urge the associated wire connecting engagement member toward the link strip, wherein the link strip comprises a plurality of inverted U-shaped bent portions maintained to be in contact with respective outer surfaces of the separation walls, and connecting portions formed integrally with the bent portions and adapted to connect adjacent ones of the bent portions to each other, respectively.